Firefox 121.0 on Windows 10 starts as if new - no bookmarks or extensions
Long time Firefox user. Had automatic update to version 121.0 on 12/19. Shut down that night. Next morning (12/20) Firefox opened as if it was a totally new installation - no bookmarks, extensions, etc. Downloaded 121.0 64 bit version; uninstalled Firefox; reinstalled it with downloaded version - same issue. Replaced profile with backup copy from 12/17. Firefox started properly with all bookmarks, extensions and other settings.
Shut down on 12/20. When computer was started this morning (12/21) and Firefox opened - same issue - presented with brand new never before opened Firefox. Shut down Firefox, copied over 12/17 profile, restarted and all bookmarks, etc. were there. Restarted Firefox using about:restartrequired and everything was still as expected.
Windows 10 is up-to-date. No updates found for extensions.
Thoughts on what might be corrupting the profile or what steps I can take? I have 25 enabled extensions. Since a restart didn't revert me to the brand new never opened presentation, activating them one at a time doesn't seem to be a worthwhile approach.
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Sorry to hear about this problem. It sounds like you are familiar with the profile manager, so probably you have checked other profiles listed on the page as described in the first section of the following article:
Recover lost or missing Bookmarks
That page draws information from the profiles.ini file, and it's possible something is going wrong with that file so it not longer reflects all of the existing profile folders. It sounds like you are familiar with the location of profile folders, so you could compare the about:profiles list (Root Directory lines) against what you actually see on disk under
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
Is there any physical folder that Firefox has lost track of?
Finally, as you may know, if the Firefox Refresh function runs, your old profile folder is physically moved to an Old Firefox Data folder on your Windows desktop. Do you see anything like that?
Did you also restore files in the secondary location as this can possibly a problem with the startup cache if the restored profile has the same name as the profile you were using ?
You can try "Clear the startup cache..." via the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page.
I notice that you both have userChrome.css and user.js. There is also hotfix-update-xpi-intermediate from very long ago (May 2019) showing, so this is a profile that has been used for quite some time. Maybe a good time to start with a new profile and rebuild with only extensions you really need.